This article is not an in-depth analysis of my top twenty games for the Dreamcast. Rather, it is simply a way for the readers of It’s Still Thinking to view the footage I’ve captured of my personal top twenty selection. Having said that, I do manage to talk a little bit about each game, but in an extremely general way so that newcomers to the Dreamcast can get a simple idea of what each game is and how I feel towards it. It is meant to be a visual spectacle that accurately portrays the look, sound, and feel of each game.

Most of the time our Dreamcast games are busy sandwiched between each other with only their spines showing so we don’t always get to appreciate their full frontal glory.

I had to ban any Japanese cover art from this list because the majority of it is just leagues better, but since each region has its own cover style to begin with I think it’s only fair we look at one region’s games. Instead of actually playing any of these games, let’s do what any respectable collector would do and just look at the best US region Dreamcast cover art!

I used to imagine there was an alternate timeline in video game history where Shenmue III was released. Unthinkably, I am now existing in this in this alternate reality! Subsequent play-throughs of the Shenmue series has always been bittersweet. Every time you play Shenmue II, the end of disc 4 is so hard to swallow. It feels like the start of an epic adventure. But you know you can’t continue; you know you won’t see what happens to Ryo… Until now. Words can’t describe how I feel, but somehow I’m in a world where Shenmue III is going to exist. This shouldn’t be happening. I had convinced myself completely that Shenmue III was never going to happen. Like the Dreamcast, Shenmue was destined to an early death. No matter how good, how creative Dreamcast and Shenmue are, the video game business just doesn’t allow for this kind of thing to exist. Thankfully, Kickstarter is changing the business of video games. You and I can now save Shenmue through crowdfunding.

Motivation to buy a particular game can usually be stimulated by seeing video or screenshots, the pedigree of the developer, or by word of mouth. Before the advent of a mostly digital age taking hold, print media was the most opportunistic way for publishers to reach gamers. I always loved (and still do) flipping through page after page and seeing the fun ways that every game used to stand out. It would often reaffirm I wanted to buy a particular game or enticed me to look into one further. Often times this is sending the message subconsciously which may not initially unveil itself but I feel the impact it had during that era cannot be overstated.

I cannot imagine a world without sound. It is as much of the world as light and matter, each one dedicated to giving feeling to all existence.

Video games, as a medium, is the only way to bring the sights, sounds and feeling of another reality into our own and bring together all of these senses. This amounts to a powerful and influential way to visit and display themes or ideas that can have an amazing effect for change or discovery for us.

Oddly enough, Dreamcast’s indie scene was never something that I was really interested in. The experiences DC’s indie games delivered are perhaps not as engaging as some of the good commercial releases for the system. There’s a lot of 2D shoot-em-ups in the indie library. While I can appreciate a good shooter from time to time, these sometimes 320×240 res games aren’t exemplifying the Dreamcast’s strengths (don’t get me wrong, the 320×240 Dreamcast arcade games are still great!). I didn’t think an indie Dreamcast game could get me excited; to make me feel like we have a console that can provide modern gaming fun. But after over a decade since Dreamcast’s death, we finally have a deeper, enthralling experience us Dreamcast fans can be excited for: Elysian Shadows.

In today’s gaming world, it’s hard to think of many games that can be so easy to pick up and play casually, yet be so difficult to master. In fact, finding many games like this throughout all of the generations is no easy task. To me, it is something that can be extremely difficult to achieve for game developers, but when it is, can provide some of the deepest gameplay experiences we can imagine; allowing the well-practiced to show off their hard-earned skills to newcomers. Super Monkey Ball 2 for the Nintendo Gamecube is one of these games that has achieved the huge gap between the regular player, and the veteran.

Perhaps as a parting gift to Dreamcast fans, Sega published their final Dreamcast game (Japan-only) with quite a neat easter egg. Puyo Puyo Fever (Puyo Pop Fever when switched to English in the options menu) was the final Sega-published release for the Sega Dreamcast (2/24/04). Not only is it a great puzzle game, Sega programmed the game with an installable VMU file which would unlock the alternate Dreamcast BIOs menu.

Une, deux, trois… Magnifique! Extraordinaire! Génial! Ça, c’est un jeu impressionnant. Ah zut, that was my French coming out of me. It’s been happening ever since I started playing Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure on the Nintendo 3DS.

You do not generally jump at the chance to use a keyboard, often less now that most communication is thrown about by telephones using evolved languages that are bereft of punctuation and actual words. It’s a rather mundane experience that even grandma can do.We are taught how to use one in school, and most jobs require you to be able to at least finger peck the thing to death, words per minute be damned. So to have such a pleasantly enjoyable and skill testing experience with that pedestrian and button filled monstrosity further proves just how golden of an age the Dreamcast was in.